2016 - 2021 Strategic Process Update

To provide an education that challenges all students to achieve their maximum potential in academics, arts, and athletics and prepares them to succeed in a global society.

Values

Trust

Integrity

Commitment

Collaboration

Honesty

Accountability

Approach to the Strategic Process:

This planning approach is intended to guide the actions and decision making of Oxford Community Schools stakeholders, whether at the schools, the district office, or elsewhere, over the next five-year strategic horizon. We adopt this plan as a road map to improved student achievement and growth for all students. Our hope is that all stakeholders are inspired through its focus and clarity to come together for the betterment of our future. To that end, strategic decisions in regards to resource allocations, particularly those related to budget, staffing, instructional materials, technology utilization, and facilities must be aligned with priorities contained within the process. In some areas, with collaborative insight, the district leadership will sequence and scale changes over time. Finally, the strategic decision making process encourages engagement of staff at all levels who contribute to the work or are affected by its outcomes. Although it is important to have a strong, coherent process and to be consistent and effective in the execution, the district recognizes that flexibility, which encompasses the values of Integrity, Collaboration, and Accountability, is required to meet the needs of our stakeholders. To garner Trust, our strategic process and resultant plans are written to ensure Accountability for changes and adjustments needed in response to the shifting educational environment.

Purpose of the Strategic Process:

The Strategic Process is our instrument for communicating the direction and vision of Oxford Community Schools. Oxford Community Schools’ number one goal is to ensure “student success at all levels,” which reflects our commitment to placing students first. “Student success at all levels” takes many forms and shapes, but it results in increased academic excellence in literacy and numeracy, improved student achievement and growth, improved high school graduation rates, and prepared students for post secondary options. To accomplish this commitment, the Oxford Community Schools will need the support of all stakeholders so we encourage everyone—district employees, members of the public at large, students, parents, and taxpayers—to be involved in and committed our students’ success. This process outlines our approach for responsiveness to our stakeholders as we hold ourselves accountable for ensuring “student success at all levels.”

Definition of student achievement articulated with a balanced scorecard – started

Foster a healthy culture and climate – Ongoing

Leadership development - started

Internal process improvements - started

Alignment of all school improvement plans, district improvement plan, and IB goals that all reinforce and help achieve the 3 academic goals as identified within the strategic process. Ensure MI state goals are taken into consideration. – partially completed and ongoing

Develop existing and identify new strategic partnership affiliations – started and ongoing

21st Century skills– Refers to a broad set of knowledge, skills, work habits, and character traits that are believed—by educators, school reformers, college professors, employers, and others—to be critically important to success in today’s world, particularly in collegiate programs and contemporary careers and workplaces. Generally speaking, 21st century skills can be applied in all academic subject areas, and in all educational, career, and civic settings throughout a student’s life.

Annual Measurable Objectives (AMOs)– Annual targets set by the state on mandated state tests.

Approaches to Learning (ATL)– Deliberate strategies, skills and attitudes that permeate the IB teaching and learning environment. They support the belief that a large influence on a student’s education is not only what you learn but also how you learn. ATL(s) focus on thinking skills, communications skills, social skills, self-management skills, and research skills.

CCSS– Common Core State Standards: Michigan’s standards for English and math.

Climate– Patterns of students', parents' and school personnel's experience of school life that reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures.

Culture – Refers to the quality and character of school life.

District Improvement Team – District team that coordinates with the School Improvement Teams to unify improvement efforts across the district.

District leadership – Superintendent, assistant superintendents, executive director, building principals, and program directors.

Formative Assessments– Assessments that are used by teachers before the end of a learning cycle, or expected time frame for mastery, to gather progress on student learning. They are the most instructionally-sensitive types of progress monitoring that provide immediate or on-time feedback during the learning process. Teachers can use formative data to determine the learning needs of students and improve instructional activities.

International Baccalaureate (IB) – An educational program that celebrates the many ways people work together to construct meaning and make sense of the world. Through the interplay of asking, doing and thinking, this constructivist approach leads towards open, democratic classrooms. An IB education empowers young people for a lifetime of learning, independently and in collaboration with others. It prepares a community of learners to engage with global challenges through inquiry, action and reflection.

Michigan Grade Level Content Learning Expectations and High School Content Expectations – Benchmark skills and content that have been established through the Michigan Department of Education for K-12 subjects other than English, math, and science.

Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) – Also known as response to intervention. Strategies, interventions, assessments provided to students who are struggling.

Professional Learning Communities (PLC) – Educators committed to working collaboratively in ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research in order to achieve better results for the students they serve.

School Improvement Teams – Building teams made up of administrators, staff and parents who guide and direct schoolwide improvement of instruction

Student Learning Objective (SLO) - A detailed, measurable goal developed by educators in collaboration with their evaluator and/or colleagues to address identified student needs across a specified period of time (typically a semester). The teacher uses pre and post assessments to measure student growth on a specific target or goal set by the teacher.

Stakeholders – District employees, members of the public at large, students, parents and taxpayers.

Student Achievement– The status of subject-matter knowledge, understandings, and skills at one point in time for a student. Each grade level has learning goals or instructional standards that educators are required to teach. Standards are similar to a 'to-do' list that a teacher can use to guide instruction. Students are measured against expected levels of mastery of these goals or standards. Typical assessments that measure student achievement are standardized assessments such as M-STEP, ACT, and SAT.

Student Growth – A demonstrable change in a student’s learning between two or more points in time. Student growth assessments measure the relative change in a student’s performance on a specific test with the performance of all other students on that same test. The scores of all students are used to create an “index of student growth” and to identify a median achievement score that can be used as a point of comparison for all student scores—i.e., some students will show growth that is greater than the median, while others will show growth that is lower than the median.

Summative Assessments - Assessments that measure student performance at the end of the learning process to determine if students have mastered a particular set of knowledge and skills. Summative assessments are end of chapter assessments, end of unit assessments, end of term assessments, performance assessments. However, classroom developed summative assessments are formative in nature if the teacher provides feedback for remediation.